Editor, Ceres Courier,

As a community we see it on a daily basis.

We pass them, ignore them and do nothing.

It's sad that we claim to be a united nation, but lack the ability to help each other in the hardest of moments. By "them" I refer to the heroes of our nation. A hero is defined as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. To be clear, I'm talking about our war heroes, our soldiers, who fight for our country and come back and lack the economic and social support from their nation. It's quite ironic that we love our soldiers when they put their lives on the line, but treat them as trash when they come back. Seven percent of homeless people are soldiers who came back to nothing. It astonishes me that our government can spend up to $598.5 billion on building our military, but spend little to nothing in helping our veterans return back to a somewhat normal life. If you think that is sad, imagine the soldiers that come back with PTSD and don't receive help. From the seven percent of the homeless soldiers more than half come back with PTSD and self-medicate themselves due to the fact that they lack the income to get professional help. They feed their disorder with drugs in order to cope with the stress and the events they encountered in war.

I believe it's time that we step up to the plate. It's time that we give back to our selfless heroes and make them feel at home, once more. After what they have been through for us, they deserve so much, and it's up to us as a nation to give it to them.

Yesenia Bernal,
Student,
Central Valley High School

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